Whether your team members are working from home or on the go, they need the right tools and processes to enable their success and productivity. Working remotely doesn’t have to be viewed as something totally different from working in an office. The following six tips will help you empower your remote workers and ensure lasting success.
1) Maintain the Connection
One of the most important things you can do is work to maintain the connection with people who are working remotely. Although working from home or on the go can have positive impacts on productivity, it sometimes makes people feel like they are disconnected. So, it is important to foster a culture that supports remote work.
For example, you can organize video conferences for people to catch up. Letting people chat over instant messenger as they would at the water cooler can help too.
2) Make Communication Easy
Communication is central to almost all business activities. Helping people stay in touch will help you to achieve the above tip and improve your team’s success.
Set up video conferencing tools that will help people speak when they need to. Additionally, give people good instant-messaging tools. It is a good idea to consider a unified communication platform. The easier it is for people to communicate the better. However, it is important not to give too many disparate platforms because this can lead to disorganization.
3) Give Them Easy Access to Records
Every business has data and workflows that may need to be accessed regularly by workers. Set them up with easy access even when they are working remotely.
For example, you may have some CRM apps that your sales team uses to stay organized with their leads. Those apps should be accessible no matter where the team member is working from. Leveraging SaaS solutions is often an effective way to achieve this level of access.
4) Keep Thing Secure
Security is an especially important concern when having people work remotely. They can be more vulnerable when not working on a network secured by your IT staff. Fortunately, you can work around this with tools such as a virtual private network.
Furthermore, setting up good security policies for things like passwords and handling suspicious emails can help to ensure better security. It is also very valuable to give people an easy-access hotline for IT and security support whenever they need it.
5) Develop Location-Agnostic Processes
Your business processes should be designed to be location-agnostic. In other words, people should be able to perform their work in the same way regardless of whether they are in the office or on the other side of the world.
Creating processes that don’t require someone to be in any particular location is quite simple when you plan them with remote workers in mind. However, trying to adapt processes or make alternative ones for remote work can be very challenging. Consider auditing how your team is getting its work done.
6) Keep Technology Updated
Keeping technology updated is one of the best ways to ensure that people can work remotely efficiently. When someone has out-of-date software, they are more likely to have technical issues that make connecting difficult. Additionally, new updates typically improve security. Therefore, devices that haven’t been updated can be significant security vulnerabilities.
Your IT staff can set up update policies that require people to install updates at certain times. This is one of the surest ways to make sure that your team members are not using insecure and out-of-date software. However, it can also be helpful to require touchpoints with your IT staff periodically as well.
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Using the right apps, tools and policies, you can set your team up to enjoy success when working remotely. People are more concerned than ever about being able to work from home or on the go. So, it is important to organize your business to support this preference.
